1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the hairdressing industry. More particularly, it pertains to a device for covering the helix portion of the pinna in order to prevent burning of the skin or tissue of the ear during those processes where the hair is treated with chemicals and then subjected to a flow of hot air, in order to activate the chemicals and establish a hair fashion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A significant part of a woman's self-esteem involves her hair and how it is arranged. Such emphasis is placed on a woman's well-groomed hair that she will spend significant time and money insuring that it emphasizes her beauty. Not only is there a lot of time spent by ladies is combing their hair and arranging their curls and waves just so, but the hair dressing industry has grown to immense proportion and uses large quantities of shampoos, rinses, colorants, and other complex chemicals to bring out the best highlights of a woman's hair.
Part of these processes involve the application of heat or flow of hot air that are directed down over the woman's head to either dry the hair or cause chemicals placed on the hair to set the hair into a semipermanent style otherwise know as “permanents”. Much use is made of the “hair dryer” which is a hood placed over the top and down the sides of the woman's head where warm or hot air is made to flow, for periods of one-half hour or more, over the hair and down around the sides of the woman's face to exit near her chin. During this process, the hair is raised to a rather high temperature to cause the permanent chemicals to set the hair in the desired style.
In this process the woman's external ears are often subject to large amounts of heat energy. The external part of the ear that receives the most heat is usually the prominant rim or helix of the auricle or pinna. This area, along with the other curved prominence, parallel with and in front of the helix, called the antihelix, and the fossa of the helix, located therebetween, may sustain temporary or permanent injury from the heat of the hair dryer. In general, this portion of the ear anatomy is thin, has very little blood flow through it, and thus is not able to be internally cooled except by removing or shielding the heat from the air passing over the ear.
Some efforts to provide shields for the helix have been made in the prior art, however, none of them have met with any degree of commercial success. The primary reason for the failure of most of the patented inventions is that health regulations restrict the use of ear protectors to a single individual so that they must be disposed of after each use. This requires them to be very inexpensive while they must perform the shielding as if they were made of very expensive materials. In addition, the human ear is designed with the external pinna or auricle extending in a non-symmetrical manner from the head in order to collect the vibration of the air by which sound is produced, The nature of the external ear is that it is most economical in design to conduct those vibrations to the pympanum, however, the shape does not allow for easy covering.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,396,113 requires the manufacture of a component having a significant bulge in it, in order to fit about the bulge created by the posterior portion of the helix at the connection of the ear and the head. Such a bulged component is expensive to make and renders the device too expensive for a single use. U.S. Pat. No. 2,468,721 requires a large, thick sealing ring for placement about the helix and lobe of the ear which makes the device too expensive for a one-of-a-kind use. U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,365 involves the manufacture of a heat insulative, hollow, vertically elongated envelope or shield that is quite expensive and not suited for throw-away use. U.S. Pat. No. 3,875,592 also requires the manufacture of an earcup with many complex parts that disqualifies it for wide-spread, single usage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,153 is directed at a throw-away ear protector yet requires a second mask member that raises the manufacture cost beyond the reach of many hair stylists. U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,643 involves an ear protector made of rubber or thermoplastic material, three-dimensional in character, for use about the ear. Manufacturing costs involving any three-dimensional products eliminates them from consideration as a throw-away device. U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,229 involves the use of a first strip of polyethylene film, a second strip of inelastic material, and a rubber band, which, purely by their numerosity, results in a high manufacturing cost. U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,219 involves an ear protector requiring a core member, an outer protective layer, and an inner layer. In the process of making the device one must use vacuum forming machines and a sewing machine. All of these processes make the device too expensive to use on a single customer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,758 involves an ear-covering web, an ear plug, a rope, and a sewn-on border that makes the device too expensive for consideration as a throw-away ear protector. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,440 discloses an ear protector comprising a lower support member, an upper support member, a recessed member, a diagonally descending back member, first, second, and third elongated members, and more which makes this device unacceptable as a cheap, throw-away ear protector. Unfortunately, none of these devices has ever reached market usage which leaves the majority of women in the world still suffering from burnt ears in order to obtain their desired hair style.